Episode summary
Clara Wu Tsai on the NY Liberty, Rise of the WNBA | The David Rubenstein Show
The David Rubenstein Show
· · 24 min · Hosts: David Rubenstein · Guests: Clara Wu Tsai
Summary
Clara Wu Tsai argued that sports ownership is a long-horizon business centered on building institutions, not just chasing quarterly results. She said the appeal of the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty was the ability to make decisions, set a vision, and invest in an arena, a roster, and a fan base over decades rather than seasons. She also framed live sports as increasingly valuable because they are unscripted, communal, and difficult to replicate in the age of AI.
Much of the interview focused on how the Liberty went from a struggling franchise in Westchester County to a WNBA champion. Wu Tsai said the first decisive move was relocating the team to Barclays Center, then investing in player health, management talent, facilities, and free-agent recruitment, including Breanna Stewart in 2023. She also highlighted the fan experience, rooted in Brooklyn culture, as part of the turnaround.
She discussed the WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, saying salary cap growth from 1.4 million to 7 million, with a path to 10 million, reflects confidence in the league’s commercial future. Wu Tsai also described her family’s philanthropic work in Brooklyn, including a $50 million, ten-year social justice fund, and the Human Performance Alliance, which studies injury prevention, recovery, and the female athlete data gap.
Key takeaways
- Wu Tsai said sports have become a “legitimate asset class” because live, shared experiences are scarce and monetizable in the AI era.
- She credited the Liberty’s turnaround to moving to Barclays Center and investing in players, facilities, management, and fan experience.
- Wu Tsai said the new WNBA labor deal lifts the salary cap from 1.4 million to 7 million, with a path to 10 million, helping players make careers in the league.
- She said the Liberty’s Brooklyn-based social justice fund is a $50 million, ten-year commitment aimed at economic mobility through grants, loans, accelerators, and equity.
- Wu Tsai wants the Liberty to become a durable women’s sports business and to win another championship after the team’s first title.
Notable quotes
“I can't think of anything more fun than owning a sports team”
“And instead of thinking about earnings, you're really thinking about increasing the value of this institution”
“The most important and first move that we made was to move the team from Westchester County Center to Barclays Center”
“the WNBA salary cap went from 1.4 million to 7 million in one year, with a path to 10 million by the end of the term of the agreement”
“sports has become like a, you know, a legit, a legitimate asset class”
How the episode opens
How's your week then? No. Nothing good happened yet.
Was your birthday this week? I don't count those. That's a bad example.
The best part about being an interview is you get to meet a lot of interesting people. Very often, you have a chance to meet people you wouldn't otherwise get to meet and to see what makes them tick. I didn't really see myself as an interviewer initially, but very interesting to me is finding out why certain people who became leaders became leaders.
How did they rise up from nowhere to somewhere? Traditionally, sports teams in the professional world have been owned by men, but now, increasingly, women are owning these teams as well. One of the most influential these owners is Clara Luci, who is a co-owner of the Brooklyn Nets and a co-owner of the New York Liberty.
And she helped the New York Liberty get to a championship. The WNBA. Not long ago, I had a chance to sit down with Clara recently to talk about her journey from Kansas to the professional sports world.
We are in Brooklyn doing this, and we're at a Brooklyn basketball center. What is this center? I think it's so important what sports can teach you.
Uh, teamwork, discipline for kids, uh, for their own physical and mental well-being, and also for learning leadership skills to be able to have a place. And it should be, uh, equitable, like it, you know, and so we we have this here, and we make it available to everybody, uh, in the community. And, you know, it's also a way to develop a pipeline of fans, of course.
Did you ever expect growing up in Kansas as the daughter of academics in Kansas, at the University of Kansas, that one day you would be a major sports owner?
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- sports ownership
- wnba growth
- women's sports pay
- team culture
- ai and media value
Companies and tickers mentioned
- New York Liberty
- WNBA
- Brooklyn Nets
Watch the episode
Watch “Clara Wu Tsai on the NY Liberty, Rise of the WNBA | The David Rubenstein Show” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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